4. Discussion
The Ricin BioThreat Alert® LFDs in combinationwith the Guardian Reader™ enabled the detection of ricin in cosmetics at levels below those associated with toxic responses. The primary problem associated with using LFDs for the detection of ricin in cosmetics was flow problems with viscous products. However, the high sensitivity of the LFDs made it possible to dilute the samples sufficiently to overcome the flow problems, while still being able to detect ricin at levels less than those associated with toxic events.